How do you justify spending nearly $7 million to improve and add to Lawrence Alternative High School?

The number of at-risk students in the Lawrence school district is increasing, according to LAHS principal Judy Juneau. Facilities at the existing LAHS campus at 2600 W. 25th St. are woefully inadequate, she said.

“We have never been able to take all of the students who wanted to come in,” Juneau told about a dozen people who attended a forum Tuesday night about the pending $59 million school bond issue.

The forum in Central Junior High School’s library let patrons ask questions about details of the bond proposal. Fielding questions were school board members Sue Morgan and Austin Turney and several principals.

Also attending was Jim French, spokesman for DLR, the Overland Park consulting firm working with the district on the bond issue.

The alternative high school handles about 120 students at a time and there is a long waiting list, Juneau said.

Keeping the alternative high school at its current location would be better than placing it in an existing elementary school building that is slated to be closed, such as Centennial School, Juneau said. Centennial would be too close to Lawrence High School.

“I think the students feel like they need to have their own location,” Juneau said.

Other issues discussed:

• The $3 million to be paid to DLR is a percentage of the overall bond package. Using percentages to determine a fee is a standard procedure for such a project, Morgan and Turney said. The fee will not be paid if the bond issue doesn’t pass in Tuesday’s general election.
• Serious consideration is being given to running a shuttle bus from East Heights School, 1430 Haskell Ave., to New York School, 936 N.Y. East Heights is slated to close, sending students to New York.
• In the future, additional capital outlay money might be used to renovate the older, three-story building at Cordley to make it accessible to the people with disabilities. The money would be in addition to the $4.6 million earmarked for the school’s expansion under the bond issue.
• Programs currently housed at 1919 Del., such as early childhood education, could be moved to East Heights.